Six Minutes with Maria Sutton, Author of The Night Sky

I took an interest in Maria Sutton’s The Night Sky because it is a compelling story about a quest. Young Maria had learned that her father was not her birth father and she set about to find him, to learn his story, and ultimately to re-connect with a portion of herself which had been lost in that great upheaval called World War II. The second reason I felt compelled to read the book was that it once again answers questions many people have about what really happened to so many people who were wounded by that terrible war. Sutton’s candid tale of persistence, hope, fear, confusion and pain makes for more than a good read.

The book's full title is The Night Sky: A Journey from Dachau to Denver and Back. There are many lessons here that we can all benefit from because she took the time to record and share them.

EN: Why did you write this book?

Maria Sutton: Millions of people are searching for something -- whether it be a new job, significant other, or something they think is missing in their lives. I wanted people to know that if they never give up, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, they will find that thing for which they searched. In the end, it may not turn out to be what they thought or hoped it would be, but it may be even something better. Many people have told me my story inspired them to continue reach for those stars – and that’s why I wrote the book, so that readers would know they can find their dreams.

EN: How many trips to Europe did you make in order to find your father and the rest of your family’s history?

MS: Europe is a fascinating, intriguing place to be solving a mystery. The history, architecture, culture, and friendly, helpful people, made me feel I was on a vacation instead of on a hunt. I sleuthed around Europe for fourteen years, covering four countries and six trips. The Internet helped me zero in on the places I needed to visit, but had I not been able to review documents in those foreign countries, the mystery would not have unraveled.

EN: What was the first clue that the image of your father was overly romanticized?

MS: There were so many clues along the way, but I dismissed all the ones that didn’t fit the image of what I wanted my father to be. A little voice inside my head kept telling me I was setting myself up for disappointment, but I didn’t listen to it – just like I didn’t listen to my mother’s comments that I should stop searching for Jozef. In the end, I knew no one could live up to the image I had conjured up in my mind, but that didn’t stop me from romanticizing about him. The picture of him that Angelica sent me still haunts me because it revealed his inner soul, and was the first of a series of shocking revelations.

EN: It seems that so many Americans are clueless about what Europe went through during the two World Wars. Your story helps bring understanding. What are the most painful truths you learned besides what you learned about your father?

MS: Man’s inhumanity to man was the most painful truth I learned when researching the tumultuous WWII era. The senseless killings, mass murders, and torturing of innocent people made me painfully aware of the evil that is within ordinary people, but the resilience of the human spirit is how I want my story to be remembered.

EN: What is the meaning of your title, The Night Sky?

MS: I love this question and get asked it a lot. From the time I first started writing the book, I knew I wanted to name it The Night Sky because all my life I have been looking at the stars of the night sky, knowing that somewhere beyond the stars of the night sky there was another world where my family was drinking coffee, eating bread, talking, laughing, and planting flowers and vegetables – and I wanted to reach out and touch them.

EN: How did the experiences that you share here change you?

MS: Finding my father was an epiphany for me. I had to come to terms with what I found during my search, and it could have shattered any illusions I had about myself. Instead, it made me a stronger person. It was a hard way to find out that only I have the power to define myself.

EN: How did writing this story change you?

MS: I am amazed at how many people have contacted me after reading my book. I get emails, letters, and phone calls from all over the world, people wanting to meet me, so I am humbled and honored that people feel my story has helped them with their life struggles in some way. If my story has made a difference in someone’s life, then I’m glad I shared my personal tragedies and triumphs. Many of the things I wrote about were embarrassing to me and I didn’t want to disclose them – just gloss over them, but I realized it would not have been an honest book if I had done so. I have also learned that truth, in all its ugliness, is a beautiful thing that sets you free.

EN: Where can people find out more about this book and purchase it?

MS: Thank you for asking! The Night Sky can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in most libraries. Readers can just Google “Maria Sutton The Night Sky” and about 14 million websites should pop-up.

Night sky photo courtesy Andrew Perfetti Photography

Uprooted: Part XVII (Another Dark Day)

These Saturday blog entries have been devoted to a serial novel titled Uprooted, a story about Ralph Kand, a young crippled man from Estonia during those difficult and challenging years from 1939-1945. It's a story of alienation, of the relentless pursuit of freedom and a homeland.

Another Dark Day

The days were getting shorter and snow began to fall. The mountains were spectacular. The room where he stayed behind the resort opened onto a balcony and Ralph had put extra-long wires on the speakers that ran to his record player so that he could place them outside facing the mountainous slopes that swooped down into Schrunz. Then, he would put on Beethoven, full volume. The effect could never be reproduced in any other setting. In this manner Ralph, sipping his vodka, would escape the war, the pain, the insanities of the time and drift up into those ethereal spaces.

There had always been pressure to work longer hours, but one day an edict came that the paperwork must be fully brought up to date. This was not directly given to Ralph but Kapinsky, his supervisor, was unable to conceal his distress. "What they want is impossible."

The day came that two German officers arrived with instructions from higher ups to get the paperwork current. Kapinsky returned to the accounting offices wearing a frown. Ralph saw it immediately and asked what was going on.

"You can see how far behind we are on the paperwork."

"So, we're getting more help?" Ralph said.

"Actually, yes," Kapinsky said flatly. He then went on to say they needed to organize everything so it could be transported to another place.

Ralph looked puzzled but Kapinsky said nothing more about it other than that Ralph would have to be there early the next day, five a.m. sharp.

The following morning Ralph arrived at the accounting office where he was met by two Nazi soldiers. He was instructed to load the jeep with the boxes he had assembled with Kapinsky the day before. It was all very strange, and in the pre-dawn chill there was a special ominous quality to it.

In the back seat of the jeep, with boxes stacked behind and beside him, they wove their way down through the mountainous terrain as the sky slowly shifted from black to grey. Neither German answered when he asked where they were going. For more than two hours they drove in silence, the terrain eventually becoming rolling hills. The sun never showed its face that day but Ralph correctly guessed they had been heading north when they passed a border crossing. Roadsides indicated that they were in Bavaria.

The vehicle stopped again at another checkpoint and Ralph noticed an immense stretch of walls and barbed wire fencing. At various points along the wall there were watchtowers. The jeep bumped across a set of railroad tracks and paused at yet another barrier where the Germans had to show their papers. A guard pointed to a walled in lane into which the jeep crept slowly. Finally, they came to a small paved lot where numerous other vehicles were parked. A soldier came out to greet them.

Ralph and the soldiers carried the boxes into a brick building with numerous spacious rooms and down through a corridor to a room with a long table at which were seated gaunt men wearing striped prison garb. Ralph was shocked at their appearance, and totally unprepared for the hateful stares he received from these emaciated men. After the boxes were placed on the tables, a cart with boxes of ledger books was rolled in.

An officer entered the room and the German soldiers stood at attention. The officer then explained to Ralph that these men were Jewish bankers who were there to help him get the books in order. The project he was working on was extreme importance to der Führer. There would be a meal at noon, the men were told.

The soldiers left and Ralph presented the boxes to the men around the table. He did not know where he was and did not know how to talk about it with these men who identified him with the Nazis who brought him there.

The paperwork was sorted and by noon a fair amount of progress had been achieved when the doors opened and the food was delivered. To Ralph the portions were modest but the men assigned to help him behaved as if it were a banquet. Ralph, who was seated there amongst them as if one of them, became uncomfortable when he noticed that everyone in the room had ceased talking and was staring in his direction. He noticed their gazes were not at him, however, but at his plate. It puzzled him until he realized the plates in front of the others were licked clean and his still contained the peelings of his potato.

"Aren't you going to eat that?" one of the bankers asked.

"Potato skins are bitter. I don't eat the peelings."

The men continued to stare.

"You want this?"

The man across from Ralph stretched his arm across the table toward Ralph's plate. The man alongside pushed the arm away and a third hand reached from Ralph's left to grab the unwanted peels. Ralph let it happen and there was a rush a cursing from others at the table when that man scarfed it up without sharing.

That afternoon as the bankers helped Ralph organize the ledgers and spreadsheets, Ralph pondered the meaning of these things. It was very late that evening when the jeep returned to Schrunz. At the time, he never understood where he had been and only later learned he'd been to Dachau.

CONTINUED